David Moulton: FGCU's Estes recalls men's basketball team's early days as Eagles head to NCAAs

NAPLES - At 9 Wednesday morning, a chartered flight will depart Southwest Florida destined for Philadelphia. The Allegiant Air MD 83 will have 115 people, including Florida Gulf Coast University basketball players, coaches, support staff, administrators and boosters aboard.

One of those will be Mike Estes.

Mike is 47 and has been with FGCU since 2001. He affectionately refers to those like him, who were there before most of the buildings on campus, as " the trailer rats." He is currently the Associate Athletic Director for Health Performance.

Of all the people on the flight, only Mike was with the team in February 2008 when they boarded a bus on a Saturday morning to play a game at Stetson.

"We didn't have the money to go up the day before, like all teams do, and stay in a hotel overnight in DeLand," Estes said. "The plan was to go there and back in the same day. We'd leave at 9, stop for lunch around 11:30 at an Olive Garden in Brandon, get back on the bus by 12:30 and drive the remaining two hours to the game. We'd get there by 2:30, for a 4 tip."

Sounds like a plan.

As Mike recalls, "Since we were traveling the day of the game the cheerleaders wanted to go and (then) Coach (Dave) Balza thought that would be good because they don't normally come to road games, so they were on the bus with us. We stopped at a rest area on I-75 just north of Bradenton, got back on the bus and then the problems started."

Problems?

"The bus broke down a few miles later," Estes said. "We called the bus company and they said they did not have another bus to put us in. At one point, the bus driver thought we just needed to add water to cool off the engine, but he couldn't reach where the water goes. So there's our center (6-foot-11) Roman Narbaye trying to make sure he doesn't get hit by the traffic on I-75, while adding water to the bus."

Remember the game is at 4 p.m., they are 160 miles away with no food, and the clock is ticking. "Three hours go by, the water didn't help and we finally get a new bus from another company to pick us up," recalled Estes, reliving the experience as he retells it. "As we are loading all our stuff from one bus to the other, it starts pouring. We're hungry, wet, miserable, it's 1:30 and Stetson is furious with us. My first thought was I have to get these guys fed, but we don't have time to stop. On the bus transfer one of our assistants (Chris Highfield) gets in a car with a couple of the players' girlfriends. They drive up ahead and pick up a bunch of salads and chicken sandwiches from a nearby Wendy's. I know it's not ideal, but it's as healthy as we could be. They catch up with us down the road and by I-4 we were eating."

As for the game?

"Stetson moved the game back 30 minutes and told us if we're not there by tipoff it's a forfeit," Estes said. "The bus pulled up after 4 p.m., we unload it, and all I remember was walking into the gym and seeing the game clock at 17:20 and counting."

Estes starts to get animated.

"We've got taping, treatments, stretching, everything to do, but we barely have time to get five guys dressed for the opening tip," he said. "We didn't get all five of our starters into the game until midway through the first half."

Estes doesn't remember how the game turned out. For the record, the Eagles fell behind by 18 only to force overtime, before losing.

But he knows more than most how far they have come.

"It's still very surreal what we've been able to accomplish in two years. The fact we are now getting on a chartered flight. Wow!" he said. "I don't think they (players and coaches) understand what they've done."

A few seconds go by before Mike says, "and I don't really want them to."

Estes finishes up his thoughts by saying, "And now, what does the future hold? The sky's the limit."